Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information communication system, in particular to pairing among a plurality of apparatuses connected to an information communication network.
Description of the Related Art
As a method for implementing pairing between two client terminals (e.g., smartphones) that are present at the same location at the same time, shake processing and QR code (Japanese registered trademark, the same applies hereafter) processing are known (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2015-22632, Paragraphs [0211] to [0239], FIG. 19, and FIG. 20).
Implementation of pairing using these methods has an advantage in that intercommunication is enabled with a certain counterpart that does not disclose private information such as a telephone number and an e-mail address, in advance. In addition, these methods implement pairing between two client terminals over an information communication network such as the Internet, and thus it is possible to implement the pairing even when the client terminals do not include infrared communication means and Bluetooth (Japanese registered trademark, the same applies hereafter) communication means, for direct communication.
However, to perform the aforementioned shake processing, both the client terminals have to include accelerometers and have GPS functions. In addition, to perform the QR code processing, at least one of the client terminals has to include a display device capable of displaying an image, and the other client terminal has to have a camera function.
Therefore, the aforementioned methods involve a problem in that they are not applicable to every type of apparatuses.